One Shots and Plot Bunnies
by InvisibleJediMaster
Summary: New:A strange ghost came to Amity and placed a compulsion on Danny to help a person he's never heard of who lives in a world of magic he never knew existed. Clockwork decides to manipulate time and soon Danny will be set back to age 11 and attending a certain magical school... Fav:Danny doesn't age normally, but even asking Vlad can't help, so he goes to Clockwork as a last resort.
1. Index

This is an index for my one-shots, with the title and summary of each chapter in order.

* * *

**Heir**

Danny finally notices that he hasn't been aging like everyone else, so he does some research and even meets with Vlad, only to discover something disquieting.

**Sam's Grand Adventure**

Sam finds an odd portal in the Ghost Zone and drags Tuck and Danny through it. On the other side are several doors in trees. Being the Goth she is, of course she'd choose the pumpkin.

**The Door**

Plasmius took the Infi-Map again, this time searching for a way to more power. It led him to a strange door that couldn't be opened, except by one of pure heart and power, so he decides to trick Daniel to open it for him.

**Master of Fudge**

Danny encounters two new ghosts in the Ghost Zone. Not a big deal, right? It is when they're his parents.

**Jazz's Phone Call**

She was finally in college. She was nowhere near her hometown of Amity Park. The ghosts should be gone..., right?

**Catnapped**

Vlad kidnaps Danny . . . and takes him . . . shopping? For cats!?

**Wizard Ghost**

Danny and Vlad are fighting across the Ghost Zone and Danny is thrown through a strange wall that Vlad himself cannot cross. Danny, who can't cross back the way he came, asks a ghost for directions and finds his way out, but the strange ghosts tells him that everyone on that side of the wall had been a wizard or witch. Danny, putting that information out of his mind, leaves through another strange portal and is dragged across unfamiliar land until he reaches a large castle in the middle of nowhere.

**Wizard in Time**

A strange ghost comes to Amity Park and lays a compulsion on Danny Phantom. The compulsion, with the power of the Ancients behind it, cannot be removed, so Clockwork decides to manipulate time for his ward, and Danny is soon sent back to age 11 to attend a school of magic in a world he never knew existed because he has to help a person he's never even heard of called The Boy Who Lived.


	2. Heir

This is **NOT** up for adoption.

* * *

As Danny Fenton grew older, he met many challenges in his life. They included rematches with ghosts he'd already fought, conflicts with Vlad with results that haven't changed, rescuing his human friends from ghosts and even, on rare occasions, rescuing ghost friends from humans.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker all went to college; different colleges that were all near each other. As a freshman, Tucker became a focus of attention for Technus. Tucker learned the basics of ghost technology from Danny's parents and then used that to invent means of fending the ghost off. After a series of incidents, they became mutual friends and would often work together on technology both ghostly and not. This news came as a great surprise to Sam and Danny for neither could have predicted a partnership between the two.

Sam became an art and literature student. Due to her association with Danny, 'the Halfa' occasional ghost artists would come to her to discuss, argue, create, or all simultaneously.

Danny continued to grow in his powers, though once in college the ghostly part of his life seemed to level out. He finally soundly defeated Vlad Masters and Vlad was forced to recognize that he could no longer harass the younger halfa. They developed a civil relationship, though no one would go so far as to call them friends. In college, Danny also met scholarly ghosts who had merely academic interests and wanted only to teach, not to fight. These ghostly professors, as well as the living ones, encouraged Danny's desire to learn, which he had much more time to do as he could now easily manage the ghostly part of his life. He discovered a great interest in anthropology and graduated to spend his post-college life traveling around the world experiencing and learning of many other cultures.

Though they did grow apart, Danny, Sam, and Tucker often would arrange time to be together and they stayed good friends for a long time. It was at one of these meetings, many years after the initial portal incident, that something rather intrinsic was pointed out to Danny, rather unintentionally by Sam. The day was just after Danny's recent return from South America. It was autumn and the three were meeting at Tucker's home.

Danny, who had not seen his friends' faces in several months, was just taking them in, enjoying being in their familiar presence. Tucker's face had started to take on lines of age, Sam's more so, though she would disguise them with some fashion of makeup or other. Tucker wore lounge clothing that, due to his comportment, still made him seem like a professional in some field. Sam was wearing a pair of worn, paint-stained overalls and a black shirt.

"It's good to see you again, Danny. Where have you been off to adventuring this time?" Sam initiated the conversation as she sipped at her tea.

"Southern Nicaraugua. What about you? And Tucker?"

"I've been to Europe to study the art in gothic architecture, but I came back a few months ago."

"Technus and I have been working on inter-dimensional communication devices."

"So we could speak from here to the Ghost Zone?"

"Yep!"

"You know, Danny," hesitation colored Sam's voice, "years have passed since we all graduated, but you still look young. I'm nearly envious."

The conversation between the three friends continued on from there, touching many different subjects as they spoke throughout the day, but Sam's comment stayed with Danny. It struck him as odd, enough for him to go back and look at a picture of himself from just after college, a picture of all three of them together celebrating their graduations. Danny immediately noticed how time had touched his friends, but when he looks in a mirror and compares his face from then and now, he does not see any significant signs of aging. There are some newer scars from his travels, but there aren't really wrinkles or age spots or anything of that sort. Almost as if he weren't physically aging.

_Is it because I'm half ghost? Ghosts don't physically age, though they can change their appearances._ Danny discovered how to change his appearance a few years ago and decided to change his jumpsuit to something a bit more normal-looking. He can pass off as a normal human while in ghost mode if he focuses on doing so.

A week later, Danny visited Vlad to discuss the idea of aging only to find that Vlad, too has visibly aged, albeit much slower than a regular human. During the visit, the billionaire also comments on Danny's seemingly unchanged appearance.

With no one else Danny can think of for guidance, he decides to visit Clockwork, his ghostly self-appointed guardian.

"It is true, young Danny, that a half-ghost such as yourself or Vlad, will not physically age at the same rate a human would."

"But even Vlad has aged more than I. Is it because I was exposed to more energy than him initially?"

"That is also a factor, but it is not the important one."

Danny waited silently.

"You see, young one, all ghosts who have an official guardian will take on some of the attributes of that guardian."

"Like an apprentice?"

"Of sorts... However, even that is not the real cause. If you were merely my apprentice, you would only ever achieve a small control over time, after a great deal of practice. You would be able to slow or accelerate time around yourself for short periods and resist time's toll on you."

"So, what is it really, then?" Danny was curious about having some small control over time, but he wanted to know what Clockwork was getting at.

"You are my heir, young Danny, and will eventually take my place."

Danny, for the first time in years, gaped, unable to speak.

Somewhere, a quiet voice in Danny's head said, _I'm Clockwork's Heir?_


	3. Sam's Grand Adventure

This plot bunny is not intended as a one-shot and **IS**** up for adoption**. If you want to adopt it, just PM me. By the way, it's a _Nightmare Before Christmas_ crossover.

* * *

"Oooh, let's go through that one!" Sam eagerly pointed through the windshield of the Specter Speeder at a particularly interesting portal as it went past. It was a dark, greenish-gray colored swirling energy with what seemed like a black ring around it. The ring was especially interesting, since it seemed fashioned of black wood with intricate carvings everywhere. Tucker, who was driving, corrected his course to go near it. Danny Phantom, outside the Specter Speeder, flew ahead to inspect it closely.

"Are you really sure?" his voice came through the headphones specially designed for outings such as this one. "The last time you really wanted to go through a portal we barely escaped being smashed by the clan of Bigfoot."

"You know that was all Tucker's idea. I haven't picked any portals today; I think I should get at least one."

"Hey!" Tucker shouted indignantly. "I didn't know there'd be evil Bigfoot chasing us!" His outburst was disregarded by the other two.

"At least let me scout it out first. If it's too dangerous, Sam, you can pick another one."

"Works for me!"

* * *

It was a weekend and the trio, having absolutely nothing to do, decided that they should go explore the Ghost Zone. They'd gone through multiple portals, one of which was just a shortcut to Skulker's island. The most exciting had been the Bigfoot realm, right up until they had to escape for their lives.

* * *

"So can we go in?" Sam asked eagerly as Danny returned a few minutes later through the portal.

"Yeah. It looks pretty okay so far, at least where the portal ends up. It's a big forest or something."

"Great! Let's go!"

Danny led the way in and Tucker parked the Specter Speeder in a small grove just inside the portal.

What they saw after getting out was indeed a large forest, filled with old-looking trees. The bark was smooth and the color of dark ash with branches that began high above their heads and looked like vague shadows against the featureless black sky.

Yet there was light, enough for them to see.

"What's over there?" Sam pointed at a brighter haze that shone through the trees.

Danny, who hadn't noticed it before, said, "I don't know. Why not investigate?"

The three took off at a swift walking pace, eventually reaching the source, which turned out to be another larger grove. All around it, evenly placed, were several trees facing inward. How did they know the trees were facing inward? Each one had a door, and each door was different. Among them were a colorful egg, a decorated tree, a heart, a pumpkin, a clover, a turkey, and a red door with stars. Danny sighed when he saw the pumpkin door, unable to hold back memories of the Fright Knight.

Sam, being the goth she is, went for the pumpkin door and opened it, looking inside.

"It's like another portal," she observed, and Danny--who'd opened the decorated tree door to see it was at the top of a snowy hill looking down on a brightly lit, colorful town--and Tucker--who'd opened the red starry door to see a factory-type place with fireworks being tested high above--both shut their doors and went to Sam. Seeing through her door was difficult because it was night in the other place as well without as much light, but it seemed to be another forest with the wall of a town and rooftops visible beyond it.

"I'm going in," Sam announced, immediately following up her statement by jumping through the pumpkin-shaped doorway. Danny and Tucker of course had to follow her.

They emerged in the new forest as the door shut behind the trio of its own volition. They had to walk around the wall for a short distance, but they quickly found a gate that led to the town inside.

As Sam got her first good look, all she could do was gape like her friends.

"Wow..."


	4. The Door

Here's a nice long one. Almost 2500 words! Hopefully you like it. Took me about three hours to write. This is **NOT up for adoption**. I have decided to continue it as a full story. By the way, it's a _Kingdom Hearts_ crossover.

* * *

Plasmius flew through the Ghost Zone with the Infi-Map, which he'd stolen again, in search for a source of greater power for himself. The map led him to the far reaches of the Ghost Zone that were almost never frequented. No other real landmarks were in sight, though there were random floating islands in the area that all seemed of similar size a feature. All were tiny pieces of barren rock that, if he so wished, Plasmius could sit or stand on. Even these were few and far between, though they seemed frequent considering there was nothing else around. Until the Infi-Map led the older, malevolent half-ghost to his goal, that is.

On a much larger island than the others stood a single door, constructed of what appeared to be a solid brown wood with a rounded wooden frame. There was no handle on this door, no latch, no finger-groove; there seemed to be no means of opening it at all.

Plasmius landed on the floating island, rolling up the Infi-Map in his hands as he did so, and approached the strange door.

"This will lead me to power?" he muttered to himself, the way he always does. He touched the door and, finding that it did not automatically summon defensive measures to divert him as some doors and passages in the Ghost Zone did, proceeded to run his hand across its surface and along the edge of the door. Still he could find no way of opening it. Pushing on it yielded no result, and neither did his attempt to blast the door open. In fact, when Plasmius had floated away from the door for appropriate blasting range and then blasted it, the door seemed to be covered in a reflective sheen, which dissipated when the blast's energy did, revealing absolutely no change. The blast hadn't done anything to the door at all. "Cheese logs!" Vlad swore when he saw this. He then flew around the door in hopes of finding a clue on the other side. What greeted him was a hazy, impenetrable darkness blocked by some sort of strange shield that revealed itself as a light sheen when he attempted to penetrate it. Stumped, Plasmius walked back around to the face of the door and noticed a stone plaque that hadn't been present moments ago. There was strange text on the top section of the plaque and the rest of the space was occupied by the picture of a strange large key. As Vlad peered at the foreign text, it suddenly shifted with an eye-bending wave and became English.

Vlad read aloud to himself;

"'The path is locked

By the Key;

The one of pure heart,

The one of power,

To hold back the Dark.

Thus it is opened.

Be cautious;

World's Heart at risk.'

"Well what does that mean!? Butter buns, I can't open it..." As Vlad turned away from the plaque, it vanished, though he did not notice. "So who can...? Of course...," Plasmius said with a fanged smile and an almost hiss.

Plasmius, as he was returning to his portal, decided to buzz past the Far Frozen again in order to try provoking action if he hadn't already by stealing the Map in the first place.

* * *

Danny was in the park with Sam and Tucker when his ghost sense went off with a particularly strong burst of cold inside him. He immediately rolled to his feet and leapt behind a tree to transform. After the signature flash of light and an "I'm going ghost!" he reappeared as Danny Phantom and returned to his friends, doing a 360 to search for the ghost also.

"Young Danny, it is me, Frostbite of the Far Frozen!"

"Frostbite?" Danny lowered his glowing green hands and allowed the energy to dissipate back through his body as his eyes met the form of the familiar, and more importantly non-malevolent, ghost Frostbite. "What brings you here?" The two shared a frozen handshake that caused Sam and Tucker to shived with "Not more ice training, right?" (Frostbite had come to Phantom one day soon after the Undergrowth incident to give Danny better training of that particular power.)

"No Danny. I have come to request help. Plasmius has stolen the Infi-Map from us, and we fear it is not for a good purpose."

"What!? He _stole_ the Infi-Map? But don't you guys guard it?"

"We do guard it, but several of us were in another part of the Far Frozen attending the Ice Sculpting Competition, and he took advantage of our distraction, using it to overpower us and steal it. He declared intentions of gaining more power but was no more specific than that."

"Of course he wants more power..." Phantom growled to himself. He was silent for a moment, thinking about what to do.

"I'll come back to the Far Frozen with you. Vlad usually has to come back and do something."

"Returning to the scene of the crime?" Tucker commented.

"Do you want to come too?" Danny aimed back at his two best friends.

"Of course! We'll follow you in the Specter Speeder."

Phantom turned back to Frostbite. "We'll be at the portal in a few minutes. Is that okay?"

"I shall wait for you there, young one." Frostbite disappeared, presumably to return to the portal in the Fenton basement/ghost lab.

Phantom grabbed Sam and Tucker and turned invisible, taking off to fly them back to their houses. He went to Tucker's first, landing in his room.

"Get cold weather clothes, because we're going to the Far Frozen, and it's really cold there." Tucker grabbed a thick heavy jacket and pulled it on loosely. Sam did the same when they went to her house, and then they were back at Danny's house.

"Can you distract our parents? I need to go into the Ghost Zone with the Specter Speeder," Phantom whispered into Jazz's ear. Jazz was currently studying at the kitchen table with open books and notebooks. Jack and Maddie Fenton were down in the lab working, which Danny discovered when he flew down there invisibly, giving him the need for Jazz's distraction.

Jazz jumped, still not used to Danny's cold whispers in her ear while he was an invisible ghost, whispers that were usually, like this one, requests for a distraction.

"How long do you need?" Jazz responded quietly.

"Just a few minutes."

"Mom! Dad! Can I talk to you? I have a question about ghosts!" Footsteps up the stairs could be heard almost immediately.

"Thanks, Jazz," Danny whispered again. Jazz, expecting it, managed to only twitch this time.

Danny's parents appeared at the top of the stairs just as Danny flew invisibly down to the lab through the wall with his two friends still in hand.

"What's your question, sweetie?" Danny heard his mom say from down in the lab. Then he wasn't paying attention to what was happening upstairs. Sam and Tucker got in the Specter Speeder while Danny located and tossed at them the Fenton Phones. He placed one in his own ear as Frostbite appeared next to the portal.

"Let's go," Danny said, and everyone was off through the Ghost Zone to the Far Frozen.

* * *

"So this is what it's like here," Sam said, looking around at the snowy landscape from outside the Specter Speeder.

Danny hadn't told either of his friends much about the place because he didn't tell them much about the Undergrowth incident at all. Sam _had_ had turned into the evil plant caretaker.

"Plasmius doesn't seem to have returned, yet." No sooner were the words out of Danny's mouth than the evil halfa did appear, waving the map in the air and taunting the Far Frozen inhabitants with it.

"Plasmius!" Danny shouted as he shot towards the arrogant fiend.

"Oooh, my day just gets better and better!" he said as he fired and ecto-blast at Phantom, which was dodged, and dodged the returned ecto-blast from the young halfa.

"Return the Infi-Map, Plasmius!"

"Catch me if you can, Daniel!" Vlad shot off laughing madly.

"Come on," Danny tossed back at his friends, who were back in the Specter Speeder, ready for the chase. The three took off together as Frostbite and the other Far Frozen inhabitants watched.

* * *

"Where are we even going?" Tucker asked in a bored voice. The last real Ghost Zone land mark had been passed over ten minutes ago.

"I've never been this far in before," Phantom commented. He was still in ghost form, but he'd returned to sit in the Specter Speeder after the first ten minutes of chasing Vlad. They'd been chasing him for over an hour. "You're recording out course, right Tucker?"

"Yes," Tucker yawned, not even bothering to check the ship log, which was still running.

"I wonder where he's leading us," Sam voiced. They'd figured that Vlad was leading them somewhere some time ago. They thought it might've been Clockwork's Tower, but that had passed by in the distance a while ago. Now all they could see was small desolate islands that were spread thinly about the area. Danny figured they only got as big as a chair, though he never paused to test the irrelevant theory.

Sam suddenly sat up. "Hey, what's that?"

"Did we arrive?" Tucker asked eagerly, also perking up a bit and looking ahead.

Danny stood and flew through the front of the Specter Speeder. "It looks like a door."

"A door?"

"Yeah. A plain, brown, wooden door. Odd." Danny went up to inspect it, overcome by curiosity momentarily, and was followed by Sam and Tucker, who parked the Specter Speeder alongside the edge of the larger floating island.

"_The path..."_ came a voice quieter than a whisper, though the three of them all still heard it.

This was confirmed when Danny asked if they heard the voice and they nodded affirmatively.

"Hey, where'd Plasmius go?" Sam observed.

Plasmius blasted Phantom in the side at that very moment. "Fool!" He reappeared. "You followed me all the way out here! Now you aren't going to escape me!"

This of course, caused a fight between the two halfas. Though Danny didn't notice, Vlad maneuvered himself so he first caused Danny to crash into the door, which started glowing with a golden light around the edges, and then caused Danny to shoot the door with a great deal of his own energy. The door responded with an increased brightness on one edge, obviously the opening edge. Vlad started cackling again as everyone's attention was caught.

"_The path is open..."_ came the strange voice that the three friends heard.

Danny shot forward suddenly, ecto-punching Vlad and stealing the Infi-Map. Vlad screamed in fury and sudden attention.

"_Beware the Darkness..."_ The voice seemed to trail off this time, as the door swung wide. The deceptive light at the edge vanished as the door opened to a deep darkness that started leaking out of the doorway past the frame. A strong gust of wind came pouring forth, and no one could resist it completely as Phantom and Plasmius were grounded and all four people were slowly pushed back.

Danny glanced back at the nearing edge of the island and saw that the darkness spilling forth from the doorway was surrounding the island and expanding. Something deep within his being and those of his friends feared for their very selves because of the darkness. If they were to fall into it...each feared they wouldn't return.

The wind suddenly gusted stronger and everyone was lifted off their feet. The Specter Speeder had been consumed by the darkness and the Infi-Map was blown from Danny's hands back the way they'd come, far out of sight.

Danny, more concerned with his friends, caught both of them and landed further back from the door on a larger island that the three of them could stand side by side on. Plasmius landed on a smaller island closer to the door. The expanding darkness reached him first.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker watched, rooted to their floating island, as the darkness surrounded Vlad and then started creeping up on the island itself. Tendrils started climbing around his feet and his expression changed from one of fear and apprehension to one of delight.

"So this is the power the map meant!" He started cackling as the darkness rose to cover him and he fell down into the pool at his feet. He vanished, and his island disintegrated under the darkness onslaught.

The three had been watching Vlad and Danny in particular had been watching and also remembering what he did to the door, realizing that he'd opened it for Vlad. Vlad had tricked him. Then something viscous covered his feet and his friends' feet. They looked down, alarmed to see that while they'd been watching Vlad, the darkness had reached them. And now they couldn't escape.

They all tried, Danny the hardest of all, but it was futile. The darkness rose to envelop the three of them. They tried to hold each other's hands tightly so they wouldn't be separated, but the tendrils of darkness worked their way through fingers and between hands, effectively separating them. No one heard the screams of fright that were covered by the darkness as the three disappeared far from any hope of rescue. Their island also was eaten away by the darkness, like everything else the expanding wave came across.

* * *

Danny sensed that he was falling, though he couldn't see anything, hear anything, or feel anything. He didn't even seem to be breathing, though when he was in ghost mode that wasn't as unusual for him. He had the feeling that Sam and Tucker in the same place as him, wherever that was, though they were not actually there and Danny had a feeling that they were nowhere nearby.

'How can that be?' Danny thought to himself. 'Here but not here.'

And then his feet touched down on a platform, he had the sudden feeling that he was standing upright instead of falling back, and the darkness shattered away from the platform he was standing on, the fragments turning into white birds that quickly disappeared into the dark landscape.

Danny looked down from the birds he could no longer see and could do nothing but gasp.

* * *

But wait, there's more! If you want to read further, I have continued this story. If you want to read it, go to the story section in my profile and click on 'Doorway to Darkness'


	5. Master of Fudge

This is **NOT** up for adoption.

* * *

Danny awoke suddenly when he fell off the comfortable surface he had been sleeping on and onto something much harder and less comfortable. After some disorientation, Danny realized that he had been sleeping on the couch and not his bed and had rolled of, nearly hitting the coffee table. As he realized this, the remote control that had been sitting on the edge of the couch fell off and onto the back of his head, rebounding onto the floor and causing the channel to change. The device was, like many things in his house, surrounded by a slight greenish glow from the ectoplasm that worked its way everywhere.

Thinking about the ectoplasm-tainted items in his house reminded Danny of the ghost toast incident and made him chuckle. The toaster had been blasted accidently with ectoplasm one day and when they tried to make toast a few hours later, the Jack-shaped bread slices leapt from the toaster and started flying around.

Like a delayed reaction, Danny noticed that has hands were white, his arms were black, and then that he was in ghost form, which caused him to jump up off the floor in surprise. Usually going unconscious automatically transformed him back, so why didn't he do it this time?

Jazz came downstairs to see Danny Phantom with rumpled white hair and sleepy-looking green eyes. "Danny!? What are you doing in ghost form? Mom and dad will be back soon!"

Something about that struck Danny as odd. Why would his sister's statement be odd? His parents had left a few days ago to go to a ghost convention and they were returning today around ten o'clock. It was nine o'clock now, and Danny almost wondered why he was up so early. The odd feeling was more important to him at the moment though, enough for Danny to not bother transforming back to human form.

Jazz rolled her eyes as Danny ignored her and walked lazily into the kitchen for breakfast. She followed him and pestered him about why he was even in ghost form. Had there been a fight early this morning?

"Not that I can remember. I just woke up, and I was in ghost form."

"But don't you usually transform back when you're unconscious?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe you were shocked by something really big."

"Like what?"

"Well, whatever would really shock you. What were you doing before you fell asleep?"

"I was..." Danny couldn't really remember, but he was in ghost form, so maybe he'd been ghost fighting? That didn't seem right. He remembered the green landscape of the Ghost Zone. "I was in the Ghost Zone."

"Why?"

"Exploring?"

"You say that like you don't know."

"I don't remember what I was doing."

"Whatever happened must have been a bigger shock than we thought if you repressed the memory like this."

Danny had a bad feeling about whatever had happened, but he also felt that he needed to know. He hated having holes in his memory.

"We have some time before mom and dad get back. Why don't we go to the Ghost Zone and see if that jogs any memories?"

There was a small twist inside Danny at the mention of his parents, but it wasn't associated with anything.

Jazz and Phantom went down to the Specter Speeder and into the Ghost Zone.

"Where were you?"

Danny started to pilot, just following a feeling without really remembering his previous path. Eventually he came to a stop in a rather distant area that had very few lair doors. "I think I was here."

"And why were you here?"

"I was exploring some of the more distant areas of the Ghost Zone, just to see what was around."

"Nothing seems to be here now. So what did you find?"

A cube of glowing ghost fudge floated by outside the window while Danny sat in silence, trying to think. His eyes caught the fudge and he knew that it was important for some reason.

"Is that fudge?" Jazz asked curious. She didn't come into the Ghost Zone much, but she didn't usually expect to see something so normal as a piece of fudge in the Ghost Zone, even if it were floating by. "I wonder what dad would say."

"Look, Maddie, ghost fudge!"

Jazz looked over at Phantom. "Yeah, he'd probably say that. When did you get so good at mimicking dad's voice?"

But Danny was staring out the window over Jazz's shoulder. His face was even whiter than usual as Phantom and he said quietly, "I remember what happened." His voice betrayed a deep level of sadness.

Jazz was alarmed by Danny's tone and twisted around to look.

There were Jack and Maddie, floating a short distance away from the Specter Speeder. They were using no apparent means to float, like how Jazz needed the Specter Speeder and how Valerie, when ghost fighting, needed her jet board. Jack was holding a cube of fudge that was glowing like the much smaller piece that had floated by and Maddie had an expression of patience, amusement, and affection on her face. Their skin color was off, as were the colors of their jumpsuits, and their eyes seemed to glow slightly. They were surrounded by a glowing haze.

His parents were ghosts.

Jazz screamed.


	6. Jazz's Phone Call

This is **NOT** up for adoption.

* * *

Jazz had been gone for two weeks now. Her freshman year at Yale had begun, much to her excitement, and she was already excelling in her classes like she always did. Back in Amity Park, nothing had really changed except her missing presence. Danny was kept busy fighting ghosts and his parents continued building inventions.

Danny was in his room dismantling the Ghost Gabber in his room _again_ when the phone rang. His mother answered it, of course, but a moment later she called up the stairs that the call was for Danny.

He left the mess of pieces on his bed and ran downstairs so as not to risk his mother coming up and seeing it. As soon as he had hold of the phone, Maddie told him that Jazz was on the other end of the line and promptly walked back down to the basement lab. "Bring me the phone when you're done, sweety, so I can talk too!" she added just before disappearing.

Danny put the phone to his ear and walked into the living room to hover over and then fall onto the couch. "Hey Jazz. What is it?"

Danny could instantly tell that Jazz was out of breath, but also amused at something.

"Remember how you and our parents checked out the campus to make sure it wasn't haunted or anything?" Danny had disappeared with the excuse of needing a bathroom and then transformed to invisibly fly over the school while the Fenton parents used an assortment of scanning technology.

"Yeah, I remember. There was no ghost activity that we could find."

"Well, there is now!"

Danny squashed his immediate instinct to go help when he recognized that his sister's voice conveyed amusement and not fear. "So why do you sound so pleased?"

"I need to tell you the story. It started in my morning class, that things were acting weird. Completely normal by Amity standards of course. The lights dimmed, and papers on desks were starting to float around--definitely a ghost near by. Then we all hear screaming from down the hall of the building, so I run out and, of course, a ghost is in the hallway. Paper was flying everywhere, and the ghost was terrorizing students. So I run back in class to get my backpack with the Jak o' Nine Tails and the Fenton thermos in it, and while I'm digging them out, I start listening to what the ghost is saying." Unable to control herself any longer, Jazz burst out laughing.

"Jazz, what's so funny!?" Danny asked loudly, trying to get her attention again. Danny heard her take control over her breathing and resume the story.

"The ghost is screaming, 'Fear me! For I am the Paper Ghost! My wrath will give you paper cuts! OF DOOM!!!'" Jazz collapsed into laughter again.

Danny also couldn't help but laugh himself at the striking similarity to the inept Box Ghost. Not to mention that laughter is contagious, and the tone Jazz had used to mimic the ghost was so filled with laughter that it spread to him over the phone.

"So," Jazz panted after her laughing fit, "so I finally get out the Jack o' Nine Tails and go after the ghost. He saw me coming and tried to make a paper barrier; the only problem with that was that the wall was made of _paper_. I ended up chasing him through the entire building because he tried to find a supply room with more _ammunition_ in it. He finds a box full of copy paper and starts ranting again, but then I capture him with the Nine Tails and it shocks him, causing all the released 'flat, four-cornered, paper-cut minions of DOOM' to fall to the floor in a big pile. I take the thermos lid off and point it at his head and he says, just like the Box Ghost, "That foolish, three dimensional chamber will not contain ME, for I am the Paper--!' and I capture him with the thermos!"

Danny was laughing again at Jazz's mocking tone of the Paper Ghost ranting.

She continued her story, finishing it off. "You can still hear him screaming through the thermos! Listen!" Apparently Jazz moved her phone to be next to the thermos, because Danny could indeed hear a voice undeniably similar to that of the Box Ghost screaming almost exactly the same things the Box Ghost did when he was trapped in one.

"Think he might be related?" Jazz asked after they both spent another moment laughing.

"I should ask the Box Ghost that next time he shows up." Danny gasped as his ghost sense went off, and Jazz heard him.

"Danny?"

"Speak of the ghost..." Danny said in the familiar modification of the common phrase that they used among friends and family.

Jazz heard, faintly, "I am the Box Ghost! Beware!" She started laughing again, but did hear Danny say that he'd put her on speaker phone on his cell and to wait just a moment. The call stopped with a click.

Danny transformed on the spot and flew up to his room to grab his cell phone and a Fenton thermos. Jazz picked up immediately and could hear everything much better when Danny activated the speaker phone function.

"Hey. Box Ghost!" Jazz heard him interrupt a rant about all things box-like.

That only set off another rant. "Phantom! You shall not win this time, in the face of my unbeatable cardboard minions!"

Danny cut him off early. "Do you know the Paper Ghost?"

"Paper Ghost? PAPER GHOST!? Of course I know him--he is even more fearsome than I! He is my cousin! FEAR HIM!! I sent him after that sister of yours--AAHHHH!!!" That was when Danny shot him with an ecto ray.

"Did you catch that, Jazz?"

"Yeah, I heard! I wouldn't believe it if it weren't so ridiculous."

Apparently the Paper Ghost took offense at her laughter because Danny heard his voice. "How dare You! Beware us!" Jazz shook the container vigorously to shut him up as she heard Danny use the thermos on the Box Ghost, much to his displeasure.

"This cylindrical container will not hold me, for I am the Box Ghost!"

"You tell yourself that while you're stuck in there," Danny told him to shut him up. "I'll come get the _Paper Ghost_ this weekend, okay Jazz?" The change in sound quality meant Danny had both changed back into human form--his ghost voice was, well, ghostly--and that the speaker phone was off.

"That's fine. Remember to bring an empty container, too, to replace this one."

"See you in a few days, Jazz."

"BEWARE!!!" came from both containers at once, causing the Fenton siblings to laugh again.


	7. Catnapped

This is a one-shot and **NOT up for adoption.**

**

* * *

**

There was about a second's warning.

Danny Phantom had just been flying freely through the sky, enjoying the purity of the moment and the absence of any ghosts to fight. It was dusk, and the top edge of a dark orange sun had just melted beneath the horizon leaving behind a sky half-painted with darkening blues and the other half a haze or red, orange, a gray-ish yellow, almost green, and bleached blue. The far end of the sky, where the blue was swiftly turning black, held a few of the tell-tale sparkles of the star-scape that would soon overtake the entire sky. A few thin strips of cloud were also present, on the orange side, and they were painted lavender in near-perfect contrast to the orange background.

Blue mist, brighter than the sky above, escaped as a wisp from the halfa's mouth, signaling the presence of a ghost. Phantom stopped immediately in mid-air and looked around for any ghosts or evidence of one.

"Calm down, little badger," came a well-known and unwelcome voice from behind Danny just as he was hit in the back with an ecto-blast.

He spun around and managed to spit out, "Vlad-!" before his ghost form short-circuited and darkness overtook his vision. Danny realized that perhaps the blast hadn't been just a normal ecto-blast when he saw Vlad holding something vaguely gun-shaped, metallic, and pointed at him; when he noticed that a white ring had appeared and he was transforming back; and when he realized he was blacking out. Then he lost consciousness.

An unknown amount of time later--at least half a day, because the sky was light again, signaling night was over--Danny woke up somewhere unfamiliar.

After a minute of waking up and mental processing, Danny realized that he was in the back of a car, laying down full length on a narrow albeit comfortable seat. The car had that new smell, as well as that smell that permeated everywhere in Sam's house; the smell of wealth. Then Danny remembered he'd been attacked with Vlad and realized that all of Vlad's stuff had that same smell: he was in Vlad's car!

Abruptly the kidnapped halfa sat up and got a better view of the car. He was currently on the back seat--he shifted around until he was sitting upright in the center, though he didn't put on a seatbelt--and Vlad was driving.

"What's going on!?" Danny shouted as he tried to access his ghost powers--the ring appeared and then disappeared again as if it had hit a wall.

"I've temporarily shorted out your powers, Daniel," Vlad said as he glanced back, trying to cover the fact that the boy's voice had surprised him and he'd jumped slightly in his seat. "Don't bother trying to transform."

"What's going on!?" Danny demanded again, leaning forward in his seat and gripping the front passenger seat for anchorage in the moving vehicle.

"It's rather convenient that you chose now to wake up, little badger, because we have arrived," Vlad said, ignoring the question.

"What?" Danny couldn't help himself. He looked out the side window and saw what appeared to be some kind of store with animals displayed. "Where _are_ we?"

"It's called a pet store, boy, and since you are always the one telling me to get a cat, I decided to bring you with me."

This information very nearly floored Danny--mentally that is--and it took him a moment to say, "Are you serious?"

"Yes, Daniel, I am serious." At this point, Vlad got out of his car and walked around to the other side of it to glare at Danny through the tinted window, blocking his view of the store. "Are you going to get out or do I need to drag you?"

"I'm getting out!" Danny shoved the door open, hoping it would hit Vlad--no such luck as the man merely stepped out of range of the door's swing--and roughly exited the car, almost slamming the door shut behind him.

Danny followed Vlad into the store, mumbling as he went, "I can't believe you kidnapped me to get a cat..." The store's extravagance, as he took notice of it, stunned him.

Vlad gave him an amused glance as they headed towards the feline section. "You didn't think I would buy something second-hand, did you?"

Danny's only response was to continue gaping at everything pedigree. Then he shook himself to clear his head. "What about my parents? They'll notice I'm gone..."

"They already know you're with me, and won't expect you back for the day. They think we're at a football game."

"..." Danny could only sigh in frustration. "How big is this store, anyway?" _Aren't we there yet?_

Almost as if Vlad had known what Danny was thinking, he said, "Look, we're here."

And then Danny could see the cats, as Vlad moved away a short distance to speak to a waiting attendant. All of the cats that Danny could see acted as if they knew exactly how ridiculously valuable their pedigrees were worth. Which basically meant they acted like cats, who nearly always had a self-important air hanging across their furry shoulders.

_I always knew he should get a cat, but who knew the pet would be so fitting?_ Danny couldn't help but think of the comparable arrogance of pet species and Vlad Masters.

* * *

"Danny, where have you been!?" Jazz couldn't help but ask as she stared at her brother who had finally showed up, seemingly unharmed, after spending a whole day with his halfa arch-enemy. She, Sam, and Tucker were all up in Danny's room; Danny was standing in the middle of the floor, Tucker was sitting in the computer chair, and Sam and Jazz were sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Some ridiculous rich-people pet store."

"A pet store!? Why? What did Vlad do to you, Danny?"

"He shorted out my powers for a while-"

"!"

"-calm down, they came back fine--and he dragged me around this pet store and kept discussing different cats with me."

"Cats?"

"Apparently, since I've told him to get a cat so manny times, he decided to finally get one and forced me to come along for it."

"..." His friends and sister stared at him like he'd grown a second head. No, not true; there was that time he actually had grown a second head after trying to duplicate himself and that wasn't the same expression.

"That's it."

"He didn't do anything else? He didn't try to hurt you, or make you his son, or take your mom-" Danny cut Sam off; the rant was familiar enough and didn't need to be repeated.

"No, he didn't do any of that. He just...bought a cat."

"Named Maddie?" Tucker spoke up.

"...actually yeah, he did name it after mom..."

Tucker snorted.

"And your powers are back to normal?" asked the ever-concerned sister.

Danny transformed to Phantom as a demonstration, then back. "Absolutely normal."

Sam got a strange, amused expression on her face. The trio of friends all looked at her for explanation. "What?" Danny asked.

"You realize that you were catnapped, don't you?" _Not kidnapped, not ghost-napped; catnapped_.

Jazz smirked, Danny face-palmed, and Tucker burst into uproarious laughter.


	8. Wizard Ghost

This is **NOT up for adoption.** I plan to continue this in full after finishing the full version of 'The Door' also known as 'Doorway to Darkness'

* * *

Vlad Plasmius and Danny Phantom were currently engaged in a high-speed battle through the Ghost Zone. The fight had started over Amity Park, but Danny blasted his arch-enemy through his house, down into the basement-turned-lab, and through the ghost portal. They had chased each other across the Ghost Zone, fighting for control over the Fenton's latest invention, the relatively harmless power-level indicator, dubbed the Fenton Specter Measurer. It had, of course, registered when pointed inadvertently at Danny.

"'Levels too high to indicate'?" his parents had commented as they looked between the screen and their son. "What's that--!" The device was immediately abandoned on the kitchen table when a blast echoed from the basement, which his parents both took off running for.

Danny had taken the device and left for school to show it to Sam and Tucker, his two trusted friends.

"Well, Danny, it appears to measure the energy a ghost has," Tucker explained as he looked over the device. He then pointed it at Danny, only to get the same message his parents had. "'Levels too high' huh? That must mean you have so much power, this thing can't properly read you."

"Maybe it's just malfunctioning," Danny commented as he took the device to look at it himself again.

"Well, when a ghost shows up, like Skulker or the Box Ghost or something, we can test it on them."

"Yeah, that will work."

Skulker and the Box Ghost, almost as if they had been summoned, appeared later that day.

"So, Skulker was a 5 and the Box Ghost was a 3. This does work..."

"But how does it work?"

Tucker jacked in his PDA and poked at the screen for a minute before coming up with an answer. "This works on an exponential scale and goes up to level 15."

"Exponential?"

Sam, who had always been better at math and payed attention more than Tucker did in class, answered. "It means that every time there's an increase in level, the actual power will double, or triple, or maybe even times ten; it depends on the scale your parents used when programming the thing."

"Oh. What scale did they use?"

"I'm not sure..." Tap tap tap click. "Oh, here it is. They used..um...a scale of 4...ish."

"Ish?"

"It isn't exactly four, it's a little bigger than that, but it's around four."

"So Skulker is 16 times more powerful than the Box Ghost?"

"That's what this says."

"And I'm not even on the scale?"

"Apparently not."

Plasmius appeared after they were walking home with the thing and battle ensued. Sam and Tucker were quickly left behind.

In the middle of the fight, just as Danny let loose an ecto-blast that threw Plasmius into a ghostly barrier, he noticed that the barrier itself was highly unusual; and that's saying something considering they were fighting in the Ghost Zone.

The wall looked like a curtain, and it seemed to go infinitely into the distance like the Ghost Zone itself did. The curtain was an opaque whitish color, faint and Danny could almost see through it. Anyway, he could tell that the Ghost Zone looked almost exactly the same on the other side, but no other details were discernible.

"What could that--!"

Danny, distracted by the wall, failed to notice Vlad in time. The older halfa had recovered from being thrown into the wall and had come around to shoot Danny again. A single clone appeared behind Danny to fire again with a stronger blast and Danny was thrown into the wall just as Vlad had been.

Expecting to meet resistance--Vlad had certainly seemed to hit the wall pretty hard--Danny pulled himself together tightly, holding the measuring device close to his chest so it wouldn't be damaged when he hit. Much to his surprise, he seemed to suddenly slow down, and soft wisps of fabric seemed to brush across his back and shoulders as he went through the wall.

Danny opened his eyes in time to see Vlad's stunned expression. The halfa had even been frozen in surprise upon seeing that Danny did not hit the strange wall as Vlad had.

The curtain closed over Danny Phantom and Vlad rushed to the wall to pursue him, but hit the wall, which was just as solid to him as it was the first time.

Danny, once all the way through the curtain, resumed the speed he'd been traveling at before running through it. He brought himself to a halt and then looked for Vlad, but couldn't find any sign of the older halfa. Danny realized that Vlad couldn't cross the wall; he'd hit it really hard the first time, and didn't go through it then. Phantom flew back up to the wall and tried to pass back through it, but nothing he tried worked. He was now stuck in a different part of the Ghost Zone.

Looking around told him it was almost exactly the same as the one he was used to, except more barren. A few pale specters floated around and, as Danny traveled, glanced at the halfa but did not make any effort to disturb him.

A great many of the ghosts wore odd-looking robes, and several of the brighter ones--probably younger, but Danny wasn't sure--showed signs of having died while fighting.

Since they didn't seem bent on his destruction, Danny decided to talk to one.

"Excuse me, but where is this?"

"This is the realm of dead," the other ghost answered.

"So I am still in the Ghost Zone..."

"If that is what you wish to call it."

"What is that wall?"

"It is the barrier between ghosts of magic and those without."

"Magic?"

The ghost gave Danny an odd look, as if he expected Danny to know this information already. "Yes," he said with a raised eyebrow, "we were wizards and witches, people who could use magic, before we died." Then he asked a question of his own. "You were a wizard yourself; otherwise you wouldn't be here." His expression turned sad. "You are young. Perhaps you did not know before you died."

"Know what?"

"About wizards and magic, of course."

Danny shook his head of confusion. He was a halfa, not a wizard.

"Is there a way out of here?"

"You wish to return to the world?"

"Yes."

"There is a portal near here for ghosts who wish to stay. It will take you back to where you desire." Danny thought that was a rather odd way to say that, but he was half ghost. Odd didn't faze him as much as it used to. "I will not go there myself, but it is in that direction. Ask any others if you lose your way again."

The ghost floated away and Danny shot off in the direction he had pointed. After about ten minutes, Danny saw a large floating land mass, void of any features other than a stone archway with another curtain-type-thing hanging inside it. Like the other wall, Danny felt he could almost see what was on the other side, but not really. The curtain seemed to ripple faintly in a breeze, though not one Danny could feel.

Taking the plunge to get out of this strange area of the Ghost Zone and back to reality, Danny stood firmly upon the stone and then walked through the archway and the hanging curtain.

He shut his eyes, but the same sensation as when he'd passed through the first wall happened again. Faint wisps of the curtain seemed to touch his face, arms, and chest and everything seemed to slow down.

Then he was through it, and he appeared in a large arena-like room with rising stands surrounding the lowest floor, the pit, where the archway stood upon a raised dais in the center.

Some force seemed to grab Danny behind his navel, one of the centers of his ghostly energy. (Sam called it chi and had made Danny read about it; apparently there were multiple focuses of the energy within a body, and if Danny concentrated he could use the focus points to better-utilize his energy. He didn't do it very often, but the reason he did it at all was because of Sam.) The force seemed to grab him, and Danny went invisible and intangible on reflex; good for him, because otherwise he would have been pulled straight into a wall, and that would have been painful.

He was dragged up through a large, complicated building, where he caught glimpses of people, all wearing robes, most of them black. Sometimes he'd see them holding sticks and even shooting colored energy from them, but he was gone before he could try to watch and figure out what was happening.

Once out of the building, he was not released, and the invisible force pulled him across the landscape so quickly it started to blur together in his eyes.

What Phantom did manage to focus on didn't look familiar, so while Danny was back in the real world, he wasn't anywhere near Amity Park.

Buildings gave way to open countryside, and Danny was soon following a set of train tracks, empty of traffic.

In the distance, a lake, forest line, and massive structure came into view.

Once Danny was near enough to see that the forest was far more expansive that he'd first thought, that the lake was really big, and that the massive building was actually an old, extensive castle, the force let him go and he stopped moving as if he'd hit a wall. Again. (Plasmius had thrown him into a few during their fight.)

Danny Phantom, suddenly exhausted, fell from the air and transformed back into Danny Fenton. Too bad he was over the lake when it happened. Danny thus discovered that the lake was very cold, and he swam back to the shore as fast as he could manage. Unable to concentrate enough to even turn intangible to let the water fall from his form, he was stuck shivering on the lake shore. Looking around, he could see that, while it was midday in Amity Park--it had been when he entered the Ghost Zone--it was dark here. The nearly-full moon was bright and lit the landscape faintly, and several windows of the castle were lit from within with a warm-looking yellow light.

People obviously lived there, so Danny started his long trek towards the castle with the hope that people would be able to help him; tell him where he was, maybe give him some food, at least a place to dry off and warm up. (Danny, due to being half ghost and having gained control of his ice powers, did not react to the cold as readily as a normal human, but there was only so much he could stand as a human himself, and being dunked in an icy lake at night was more that he could handle.

_'I wonder if this is a boarding school or something,'_ Danny thought. _'Or a weird European college; don't some of the really old ones look like castles? Wait, am I in Europe? No, I can't be.'_ Danny laughed to himself at the thought of going all the way to Europe via the Ghost Zone and kept walking.


	9. Wizard in Time

This idea has been bouncing around for a while, and new stuff keeps coming up randomly from all across the HP timeline. Here's the beginning. Review for how you like it, because this could easily become a proper story later.

I do not own Danny Phantom or Harry Potter. That doesn't stop me from being inspired by them, though!

* * *

Danny was walking home from the Nasty Burger with his friends when a wisp of blue mist escaped his mouth; not at all an unusual occurrence since that was his ghost sense and there were often attacks when he was just walking around town. He automatically dropped his backpack, which had been hanging lazily from only one shoulder, and ducked into an alley. Sam and Tucker, his two best friends and most trusted companions in the entire world, moved to block the alley entrance from view. Tucker also picked up the dropped backpack and, with practiced ease, pulled a metal thermos and two ecto-guns from it. A flash of light came from behind them in the alley and suddenly Danny Phantom leapt out, taking the proffered thermos in hand. But the ghost that floated trough the wall of the building on his left was one he had never seen before; in fact it was one of the strangest ghosts he'd ever seen, which was really saying something.

The ghost in question was like a different type of ghost entirely. For one, he was a pale gray color and transparent. For two, he looked entirely human—other than the fact that you could see through him, that is—because he didn't have any weird features like animal parts or fangs or flaming hair or any of the other odd qualities a ghost picked up. Even if he did appear to be wearing a dress, or robe of some kind... He didn't even glow, and that was something that all the ghosts he knew did, including himself. He was more like a person that wasn't all the way there. The other weird thing was that the strange new ghost wasn't attacking him. At all.

Danny glanced at his friends, who shrugged. "Um," Danny chanced, deciding to attempt talking to the ghost, "who are you?"

He floated forward and spoke, though he did not respond to the question. "My friends need help. Please, you are strong. I have seen you fight. Will you help them?"

"Sure, I guess, but what-"

The ghost, apparently needing no further permission than that, put a hand into a pocket of his robes and pulled out a long, thin stick about the length of his forearm. Tucker gasped. Sam didn't get much further than "What?" before a beam of white light left the tip of the stick and shot to Danny's chest, faster than he could react. The half ghost suddenly found he couldn't move, not even to speak, and his eyes were riveted to the _stick_ (a stick of all things) that he'd just been shot with. "With this power granted me after life, I bind you, hero, to aid Harry Potter in the war against Lord Voldemort."

Sam, utterly confused and seeing no way to help her best friend, looked over instead to Tucker to see if he had any ideas. Instead she found such a look of utter shock on his face that she was even more confused. _Why would Tucker react like that?_ But before she could question him, the strange ghost disappeared with a sigh and Danny was suddenly unbound.

"What in the world was that?" Danny said as he turned toward his friends. Sam seemed just as confused as he, but Tucker's face... "Hey, Tucker are you okay?"

"That . . . that was a . . . a ghost from . . . ."

"From where, Tucker? We see ghosts almost every day. Why are you acting weird?"

"That was a _wizard_ ghost!"

Sam and Danny glanced at each other. "Did you say 'wizard'?"

"TIME OUT"

The trio suddenly found themselves with a medallion around each of their necks and the Master of Time himself floating before them. Time had stopped for everything around. ". . . Hi, Clockwork?"

Clockwork sighed, as if he were very tired. "Daniel, what just happened is extremely serious."

"You mean-"

"That strange ghost, yes. As your friend Tucker just stated, that was not an ordinary ghost, at least not the kind you're used to. That was the ghost of a wizard."

"When you say _wizard _. . . ."

"A person who performs magic." Danny opened his mouth. "The weapon he shot you with is called a wand, and it is the focus wizards use to control their powers." Clockwork looked to Tucker. "I am aware of the laws, but this is the time your friends should be told."

"Well . . . we call it the wizarding world. It's mostly separate, because almost no Muggles—uh, non-wizards—know we exist."

"Then how do you know?" Sam asked.

"I kind of am one," Tucker said sheepishly as he pulled a thin stick from his pocket. A wand. Danny and Sam stared. Tucker had a wand? He was a wizard? "I go to school with you guys because I'm home-schooled in magic."

Danny and Sam could apparently think of nothing to say. Clockwork, who knew this, stepped in. "Daniel, you must listen now. An extremely unlikely sequence of events just fell into place and you have been bound with a power of the Ancients. What just happened cannot be undone, not even by me."

"But what exactly . . . ."

"When a wizard dies, he or she has the choice to become a ghost of the type you just saw. Typically these wizards and witches die violently and choose to become ghosts to complete unfinished business of some kind. The wizards who choose this are rare. Once ghosts, they are given a second choice. Most choose to haunt a place or person. A few others choose a purpose. The Ancients give them a special power so they may carry out their purpose, and once they do, they pass beyond. It is one of these that you have encountered."

"So this ghost, what, bound me to, to help someone?" Danny said, trying to remember just what the ghost said. "With a war!?"

Clockwork waved a hand and a floating screen appeared, showing a frozen Danny and the wizard ghost holding his wand. _ With this power granted me after life, I bind you, hero, to aid Harry Potter in the war against Lord Voldemort_, he said again, and then vanished, followed shortly by the screen itself.

"Who's Harry Potter?"

"That's the Boy Who Lived!" Tucker said. Sam, Danny, and Clockwork looked at him. "Every wizard around the world knows about him. Voldemort tried to kill him, but he failed. No one knows why. The Killing Curse is supposed to be impossible to defend against." Tucker turned to Clockwork. "But didn't Voldemort die? He was never seen again! How can there still be a war against him?"

"Voldemort did not die," Clockwork said, and Tucker's face paled. "He was very near death for a long time, but he did not die. And he has recently returned." He turned back to Danny. "Harry Potter, and the war against Voldemort both, are in Europe. The boy and the school he goes to are both in Britain."

"If I have to help them . . . ."

"You must go to Britain, yes."

"WHY!?"

"Because, Daniel, you have been bound by a power of the Ancients. The compulsion laid upon you will force you to aid Harry Potter in the war, and to do that, you must be where he is. Whether you go willingly or with the utmost reluctance, you will end up in Europe. Now, as your guardian, I am giving you an opportunity. You may go, unwilling or not, to Europe as you are."

"What, now?"

"_Or_, you may go there as a student and begin education as a wizard. If you choose this, I will turn back your timeline so your are the appropriate age to begin attendance as a first year."

"Turn back my timeline?"

"I will reverse your personal timeline until you are age 11, and I will send you back in time the same amount so you may attend Hogwarts."

"Are you allowed to do that?" Danny gave Clockwork a skeptical look.

"A very unique set of conditions have been fulfilled."

When Clockwork elaborated no further, Danny asked, "If you make me 11 again, won't that take away my ghost powers? Since they won't have happened yet?"

"Yes, but only temporarily. You will regain your powers on the same day you gained them originally, and they will develop the same as before. This is because I am not turning back all of time itself; only time for you. For a short while, two of you will exist, and you will physically develop and grow simultaneously, until the very day you disappear from here, set upon your second timeline."

"That . . . is kinda complicated. Wait. All these options; they mean I have to go to Europe. That I have to leave Amity Park!" Clockwork nodded. "But what about the ghosts?! Who will protect the town from ghost attacks?"

"You may be surprised, Daniel, at the future of Amity Park during your absence, but it will be protected."

"By who?"

"Your friends and family, of course, as well as a few surprises. But you will find out. In time." Clockwork smiled.

"Why would I want to be 11 and go to this strange school? Why not go now and deal with it?"

"Because you do not just 'deal with' a war, Daniel. And the advantage to going back in time for you would mean the chance to learn about the wizarding world and how it works, saving you much pain and effort than if you just went immediately."

"What would happen?"

"I cannot tell you Daniel. You must choose, and you will find out."

"Can I even go to a wizard school? I'm not a wizard."

"Actually, Daniel, you are. All three of you are wizards, though you and Sam never got schooling due to your parents." The trio just looked at him. "Your parents," Clockwork said, still looking at Daniel, "thought the letters were a joke teasing them about their study of ghosts, and they ignored them." He turned his gaze to Sam. "Your parents refused to indulge such nonsense and your letters were also ignored."

Everyone looked at the half-ghost, who appeared to be pondering his feet. Finally, he said, "I suppose learning magic wouldn't be that bad. But everyone here—my parents, everyone at school—won't they wonder where I've gone? If I just disappear, they'll assume I got kidnapped, or, or killed in a ghost attack, or something, won't they? And what about the disappearance of Phantom? People will wonder what happened to him, too."

"Daniel Fenton can accept a scholarship to a foreign boarding school. Danny Phantom, however, will seem to have disappeared, as suddenly as he came."

"Why are you offering to do all this just for me?"

"Because I am your guardian, Daniel. Ever since I gave you a second chance," Clockwork glanced over at the dented thermos, still in the same condition as when it had captured the infamous and feared Dan Phantom of a timeline that ceased to exist, "I have been charged with personal responsibility by the Observants for your timeline."

For several moments, Danny was silent.

"I'd accept," Sam said suddenly in the silence of stopped time. Danny and Tucker both looked at her. "I mean, you have to go no matter what, right? Because it's some sort of compulsion?" She glanced at Clockwork, who nodded to confirm her choice of words. "And if you accepted, you'd get to learn magic. Who wouldn't want to learn magic? Right, Tucker?"

"You do learn some really cool stuff," Tucker confirmed. "I could never give up technology, though. Wizards don't really use technology much at all. My parents don't even own a computer!" Tucker said this as if it were a major tragedy.

Everyone waited for Danny's response, which came eventually, and with a reluctant sigh. "Okay. How long will I have?"

"Your scholarship offer will arrive in the mail tomorrow. You will leave on August 30th. This will give you the 31st to buy your school supplies. School begins on September 1st."

"How am I supposed to get there?" Danny said in a voice that made him seem merely resigned to the whole thing.

"You will go to the airport. There, I will retrieve you and we shall go to Britain together."

"Will I still be able to talk to Sam and Tucker? If you're sending me back in time?"

"I will ensure your communication can continue."

"Thanks Clockwork."

"Do you have any more questions?" Clockwork asked to be polite, even though he already knew the answer.

"How long will I be gone? From here, I mean? You said it will seem like I go to boarding school."

"That I cannot tell you, though attending Hogwarts means seven years of schooling."

Suddenly hopeful, Danny grinned. "Hey, if you turn back my timeline, won't that mean that the, the _compulsion_ thing won't have happened?"

"No. Its power comes from the Ancients, and it's effects will transcend time. However, if will affect you very little until the day it was applied, this day, comes again."

Danny frowned again, as if he'd just lost a treat. "How will it affect me?"

"It will pull you toward making certain decisions. Unless they are unusual decisions, something you would not have normally done, you may not notice it acting on you at all."

Danny had run out of questions, so Clockwork turned to Sam, who had some. "How will we be able to talk to Danny? If he's in a different country, at a wizard school, and in the past?"

"Being in the past will not be a problem. And Tucker will be able to help you, for wizards communicate most often by owl, and his family owns two."

"You have pet owls, Tuck? I never knew that . . . ."

"My parents usually take care of them, and are the only ones who use them. I never have, except for maybe twice. So they stay in their room, when they aren't out flying around to catch food and deliver letters and stuff."

"Clockwork, didn't you say I was a wizard too? Is there some way I can learn?"

"Because you were never accepted formally at a school, you cannot go to one now, but you may ask Tucker's family for private instruction. They can even help you get a wand."

"You keep talking like we can't go with Danny. Can't we go?"

"As I am Daniel's guardian, and the compulsion is laid only upon him, I can bend the rules for him, and him alone." Clockwork turned away from Sam and Tucker and his gaze returned to Danny once more. "I will leave you with your friends now. Until the 30th of August. TIME IN."


End file.
